Kelly clarkson pregnant--KELLY Clarkson has announced (via Twitter, of course) that she's pregnant and expecting her first child with brand spanking new husband Brandon Blackstock.

"I'm pregnant!!!" Clarkson tweeted to her nine million followers. "Brandon and I are so excited! Best early Christmas present ever."

Clarkson, who married Blackstock in October, has been effusive on the topic of kids.

"More than anything, next I want a baby. Lots of them!" she told People mag just prior to her wedding. "My record label is freaking out because all I can talk about now are babies. We're really excited and want to get our family started."

"I'm 31 and we'd like to do it the natural way. My eggs aren't getting any younger!" said Clarkson. "So we're really excited."

Clarkson said she’d also received the OK from Blackstock’s two children.

"[Brandon] has two kids that I love and they are cool with it," she added, referring to her husband's children, Savannah, 11, and Seth, 7, from a previous relationship. "We got the A-okay from them so we are ready to go. That's definitely the next big project we're going to start on."

Clearly, they didn’t waste any time. Speaking to Jay Leno a couple of weeks ago, Clarkson played coy when he asked if she was pregnant, telling him only that they weren't "announcing anything right now" but were having sex "like rabbits" in the meantime.

"[We want a baby] like now! Practice makes perfect!" she told Leno. "We do, we do. We're trying, trying, trying. We have two kids, and they're so great. And I never wanted kids before, but now I want, like, five."

He may have Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and Catherine Zeta-Jones (possibly), but Michael Douglas reckons he still feels "underestimated" by Hollywood.

"I've always felt a little underestimated, personally," he told GQ magazine in a new interview. "I've got a pretty good batting average over forty years. Sometimes maybe it looked easy."

Douglas wowed all and sundry with his stunning performance as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra, a made-for-TV film, which almost didn’t get off the ground after the major studios passed and HBO stepped in."I'm actually taking a sort of joy, a revengeful joy, in the fact that all the studios turned it down," he said. "To me it was just a reflection of how constipated and conservative the studios have become."

Douglas also gave an insight of the struggle of the past few years, during which he battled cancer and split from Zeta-Jones.

"It's been a couple of tough years here and this has been sort of the candle on top of the cake, I guess."

Douglas and Zeta-Jones took some time apart in August after 13 years if marriage, but the actor said he remained optimistic about a reconciliation, telling the magazine, "I hope to resolve my marriage in a positive fashion."

He also spoke about eldest son Cameron, currently serving time for drug possession.

"It's his fault that he's in there, no bones about that," Douglas said. "I can't say

I wouldn't want to strangle him when this all happened."

Douglas, however, has been vocal on the treatment his son has received while in prison.

"I'm really turning my anger on the system, because I'm realising just how unfair it is for so many nonviolent drug-involved criminals," he said.

Cameron Douglas was slapped with an additional four-and-a-half years after being caught with drugs.

"(They) put him in solitary for eleven months, and no family visits for two years," said Douglas. "They don't want (judges) to look soft on a white kid whose parents are celebrities."

R&B superstar Mary J Blige has revealed how Whitney Houston’s death inspired her to get healthy.

"Whitney Houston's death really crushed me," Blige told Shape magazine. "I saw someone so incredibly talented just diminish, and I refuse to go out like that."

In the interview, the 42-year-old - who has battled her own alcohol and substance abuse issues - revealed that she’s quit drinking for good.

"I haven't had a drink in a year and three months," she told the magazine.

"I had quit for a long time but started again about five years ago. I'm off it completely once more, and now I feel stronger than ever."

Blige told the magazine a daily fitness regimen also helped her keep her emotions balanced.

"I hate being out of shape, but I don't exercise just to lose weight," she said. "It makes me feel better when I get that run in. I could be in the worst mood, but when I do my cardio I feel much, much better."

Blige has been open about her own issues with self-esteem.

"I used to think I was ugly," she said. "But that is the result of self-hate."

"I beat alcohol dependence and drug addiction. I started at 16 years old. By the time I got into the music business, it was bigger than me."

These days, Blige says that "praying and meditating" help keep her grounded.

"Others may be able to drink and have a great time, but it doesn't work for me at this point."

Is there trouble in paradise for Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon? Earlier this week, the US TV host and comedian walked the orange carpet at the TeenNick

Halo Awards in LA without his famous wife (she was apparently holed up in New York). In fact, it’s been 107 days since the couple, who have been married for five years, has been photographed together.

Carey admitted to the strain during a recent radio interview in New York. The couple’s first year of marriage, 2008, "was the easiest," she said. "And then [in 2009] he started doing America’s Got Talent, so he just works constantly."

The show is based in Los Angeles, where the couple has a home, but Carey says she can’t see herself relocating to the west coast permanently any time soon. "I like to work at home in my little studio …" she explained. "The house in L.A… I mean, he loves L.A… But I’m from [New York]."

The nature of Cannon’s work is also pushing the couple apart, Carey admitted.

When the interviewer brought up Cannon’s stand-up comedy, which often references the couple’s marriage, Carey said, "I hate it."

"In his world, he feels, in the world of comedy, that he can have license to say things that he wants to say," she said. "But if it goes too far, that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna say, ‘Check please.’"

Revealing that Cannon’s next act contains more intimate information about their relationship, Carey said, "I can’t tell him don’t talk about this or that. But for me, I look at certain relationship in the public eye, and I think, ‘See that’s class, when you don’t have to talk about that relationship that much.’ I’d much prefer that he silencio, just a little bit."